christosgage

Wow! That's pretty high for a Shogun cover at the time. I don't suppose you have an image of it? I'd love to see it! I don't recall Godzilla panel pages (or at least ones with cool Godzilla images) being that plentiful on ebay at the time, but not long after (2013 or so) is when I bought page 2 from Godzilla #1 and the page with the first appearance of Red Ronin for sub-$500 each on ebay, so there were definitely Godzilla bargains to be had in those days!

I just realized that another thing that's different today is when I started collecting art, not many people (if anyone) were interested in my primary areas of interest, Herb Trimpe Godzilla and Shogun Warriors art. Now there are a lot of interested Godzilla buyers, including dedicated Godzilla collectors who aren't into other comic art, and Shogun Warriors art is going for more than I ever thought I'd see.

Yeah there's nothing at all wrong with buying something for reasons other than unabashedly loving it; it's a Great Example, it's a Great Deal, etc. I've done all those. But when it comes to going outside my comfort zone financially I'm generally going to save it for pieces I love. Unless I know for a fact I can resell it for what I paid immediately if I need to (unexpected expense, something I really love comes up for sale, etc.) But that doesn't sound like what you're talking about if there's the possibility of getting caught at the peak of a bubble or whatever...you seem to be saying it's an expense that won't break me but will break my art collecting budget for a while, and there's a chance I might not be able to make my money back for a while, if ever. For that, I need to love it. I need to be able to say "I bought that on the newsstand in 1977" or I need to look at it and feel inspired every day or whatever.

The thing that has stayed the same is not being able to afford the pieces I want, lol. What has changed is that when I first started buying it was often still possible to buy vintage pages directly from the artists, and now that's quite rare. I always like to buy from the artist if possible. I remember cold-emailing Paul Ryan through his web site and asking if he had any pages from the Avengers issue where they fought the Blob and the rest of the Brotherhood/Freedom Force, and bought a few, one of which I still have. That was fun.

I see what you mean. If it's something I really like I'm going to pull the trigger under the circumstances you describe. Maybe I'm buying at the top of the bubble, but so what? This is a unique piece and I may never see it again. We've all seen the pieces that kick around the hobby forever, but there are also the ones you see, lose out on for whatever reason, and never see again...they've disappeared into a black hole collection. If I lost out on a great Trimpe Godzilla page from an issue I loved as a kid when I had the means and opportunity to buy it and never saw it again, the fact that I didn't buy at the top of the bubble or pay what I felt was over market price would be cold comfort. If factors like that were making me hesitate on pulling the trigger on a piece it would be a sign to me that I didn't like it as much as I was trying to convince myself I did. I was probably interested in it because of FOMO or something else other than genuine appreciation.

still too expensive for me!

I've still got it!

Yes, vs Taskmaster. Maybe around #103?

Can you give some examples of realized prices? I can't find them. I would love for Kamandi pages to drop in price. The fact is, Kirby was incredibly prolific, so it's always possible for a lot of his pages to be on the market at a given time. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a supply and demand issue...more supply than there is current demand for a specific era/character.

Depends what you mean by "aside from money". If money isn't a factor because I'm rich, then nothing! I'll take it. If you're wondering what other factors are involved, yeah, it's about what else I could do with that money. Not just what other art I could buy (though that's part of it) but could I take a trip, buy a new car (mine's 15 years old), contribute to a retirement fund, and for those who have kids (not me) there are a whole new bunch of considerations. Now, if my budget is $500 and I come across a piece I really love for $2500, I might try to find a way to swing it. But if my budget is 5K and I see a piece for 25K it's not gonna happen. It's like when I was a student and had no money at all and the Kirby estate was selling his 70s art for $200-250 a page. I knew it was a great buy. I loved the art. But it might as well have been a million.

Commissions are always harder to sell than published art, because people don't have the nostalgia factor of remembering when they read the story years ago. As a result, commissions are often worth less on the open market than the seller paid for them, which probably has something to do with why you see them failing to sell. Having said that, the value will probably depend on factors like what year the commission was done, who the character is, and what it looks like. For example, a commission from the 1970s would be more in demand than one from the 2010s. A popular character like Batman will be more in demand than a more obscure character, but a character associated with Neal Adams like Deadman might be more in demand than a more popular character who isn't associated with Adams, like Spider-Man. I would suggest sharing some more information about the commission, such as year done, size, character, etc. or perhaps an image. As for where to sell it, I haven't sold commissions so I can't really help there, but I'm sure people here can give advice. However, they'll need more information about the piece. Best of luck!

It's a great storyline and I believe the first George Perez Ultron, which for many was the definitive version of the character. This cover was also sought after for a long time by a collector who advertised in the Overstreet guide looking for it so I think there's an element of "if that guy wants it, I want it too".

I would guess the person who accidentally got it knows it has value because they had to sign for it but they don't know what that value is. Hopefully they will try to sell it and at that point the unique nature of the piece will result in it being reported and you'll get it back.

I have to say, the very few times I've tried to be very specific about what I want it didn't turn out great for me, and I think it's because as you suggested, putting too many constraints on the artist is counter-productive. Technically you get what you asked for - this character in that setting doing X - but it's lacking something, and I think it's because the artist feels boxed in. An exception would be once or twice when I've suggested "what would you think of something like this" and the artist really responds to the idea...you can tell it's something they're excited about. Even then it's less about stage managing them and more that they are as excited about the idea as I am, so the piece has that kind of "magic". (And TBH I'm speaking here as much about writing comics as commissions...you can always spot a rookie when you see someone whose script is like Alan Moore's, with everything in the panel described in great detail, what angle to use, etc etc. Most artists will either ignore that or worse, they'll try to give it to you and it will suck.) Your second point is also a great one. As an example, Ramona Fradon's commission list is pretty long, but every now and again her rep does online art dumps, and there's always some spectacular stuff in there, probably because she was drawing something that inspired her. (Never mind how amazing it is that she's 97!) I've picked up some terrific pieces, and I know exactly what I'm getting. Here's an example from just last year.

Ah that's her. Thanks for the correction!